Do we need holidays? How do we find out when they occur? How do we celebrate them? Can we make up our own?

Do we need holidays?

From the Tomb of Nakht (New Kingdom) Three Musicians

Holidays, in our secular lives, provide a time of rest, festivity, refocusing, or reclaiming. It is a break from the mundane. Whether its a carnivalesqe celebration or a high holy day, festivals can reenergize us. They can placate a restless populace or celebrate differences and similarities. They reminds us of who we are, from whence we came, and why that’s important. More

I visited a forum recently. Someone relayed a fairly…interesting UPG. It was not supported by the literature (AT ALL). It was not supported by community held UPGs (AT ALL). Should we correct each other? Absolutely! Should we be ugly about it? No. These are all points most of us agree on. But what about those far fetched UPGs? Not the ones we roll our eyes at (“I am Ramses reincarnated.”). But what about the ones that seem pretty…out there?

I think most practicing pagans, whatever their persuasion, have an opinion on unverified personal gnosis (UPG). A UPG is when a practitioner gains insight or a message through their own intuitions, contemplations, and/or communication with a deity. My general opinion is that UPG’s are generally good things, but they should be balanced against common sense, logic, and (in the case of an organized path or a recon path) historical evidence/tradition.

All religions are based off of someone’s (or often times collective) UPG(s).More